Ann Brent (1780-1863). My 4th great-grandmother. The Brents came from Hampshire in southern England and married into the Downer family, ancestors on my paternal Finch line. The surname can derive from place names but may also refer to the Old English ‘brente’ meaning steep place – the location perhaps of where a family lived. View […]
18th century
Sarah Comber and my other Comber ancestors
Sarah Comber (1682-1758).My 7th great-grandmother. The Combers were a long-established Sussex family, some prospered as landowners and sheep farmers, and family pedigrees were presented at the Heralds’ Visitations of Sussex in 1634. The surname probably derived from the occupation of combing wool, although a ‘combe’ refers also to a valley. Curiously, some members of the […]
Frances Ann Witchingham and my other Witchingham ancestors
Frances Ann Witchingham (1773-1847). My 5th great-grandmother. Witchingham is a reasonably common surname in Norfolk and probably derives from the village of Witchingham, north-west of Norwich. Over time the name has been spelled in a variety of ways including Wychingham, Wichinham, Withingham and even Wichengim. View where the Witchinghams are in my current family tree […]
Hannah Holsworth and my other Holsworth ancestors
Hannah Holsworth (1791-1879). My 4th great-grandmother. Holsworth is a fairly common surname in Norfolk. Hannah, my 4th great-grandmother, came from the village of Salhouse and was the first by this name to join my family tree. She was born on 12 January 1791 to Thomas Holsworth and Ann Parfrey (see below) and was baptised in […]
Godfrey Weston and my other Weston ancestors
Godfrey Weston (1785-1862). My 4th great-grandfather. Godfrey Weston took advantage of a young woman and then tried to evade his responsibilities to her and the daughter he fathered out of wedlock… He was born on 14 March 1785 and baptised three days later at St Mary’s Church in Banham, Norfolk. His parents were John Weston […]
Ann Burley and my other Burley ancestors
Ann Burley (1775-1850).My 4th great-grandmother. She married into the Finch family. Ann Burley was the daughter of John Burley of Limpsfield and Sarah Goodman of Kingston, both in Surrey (see below). She was born on the 27 April 1775 and baptised on 3 June that year at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, where her carpenter […]
Elizabeth Wetherill (1713-1799?) – businesswoman of Norwich
Elizabeth Wetherill (1713-1799?) and Edward Peterson (1714?-1783). My 7th great-grand aunt and uncle. Elizabeth was baptised on 1 February 1713 at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, her parents being schoolteacher Thomas Wetherill and Mary Corpe. Her brother William Wetherill’s will refers to her as Elizabeth Peterson and mentions her children but I’ve not found […]
Sarah Rice and my other Rice ancestors
Sarah Rice (1791-1871). My 4th great-grandmother. Sarah was the first of the Rice family to join my family tree. She was baptised on 3 July 1791 at St Mary’s Church in Balcombe, Sussex, to parents George Rice and Mary Harman. She married William Budgen at St Nicholas’s Church in Worth, Sussex, on 2 November 1808. […]
Rebecca Lock and my other Lock ancestors
Rebecca Lock (1779-1861). My 4th great-grandmother. Rebecca was the first of the Locks to marry into my family, when she wed Charles Goulty in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, on 17 May 1796. She’d been born in the village and baptised at St Fabian and St Sebastian’s Church on 15 April 1779 – her parents were Stephen Lock […]
Thomas Finch (1686-1755)
Thomas Finch (1686-1755). My 7th great-grand uncle. Thomas got off to a rough start in life but married into a prosperous Sussex family, at least for a while… He was born in the village of Slinfold to carpenter John Finch and his wife Sarah Richardson. But he was clearly very ill as a baby because […]
Thomas Goughty (1778-1857)
Thomas Goughty (1778-1857). My 5th great uncle. Thomas was born in 1778 and baptised at St Swithin’s Church in Frettenham, Norfolk, on 11 October that year. His parents were Charles Goulty and Elizabeth Quantrel. He grew up in the village and at some point met Sarah Russell, who came from Crostwick, Norfolk, a short way […]
William Wetherill (1711-1789) – eminent teacher of maths
William Wetherill (1711-1789), Elizabeth Clarke (????-1767) and Elizabeth Shorten (????-1794).My 7th great-grand uncle and aunts. William was baptised on 14 October 1711 at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, to parents Thomas Witherill and Mary Corpe. He followed his father into teaching and left significant property on his death. William married Elizabeth Clarke in […]
James Wetherill (1750?-1801)
James Wetherill (1750?-1801).My 6th great-grandfather. James Wetherill’s parents were almost certainly Thomas Wetherill and Sarah Sley but the details of his birth and baptism are murky. He was probably born in or around 1750, judging by the fact that he died in Great Yarmouth aged 51 in 1801. A child was baptised in the town […]
Sarah Rose and my other Rose ancestors
Sarah Rose (1817-1886).My 3rd great-grandmother. Rose is a common surname in Norfolk, which is where my branch of the family come from. The first of the Roses to join the family tree was Sarah, who married William Stoliday/Stolliday in 1835. Sarah was born in 1817 to farmer Robert Rose and his wife Hannah Holsworth (see […]
Elizabeth Maria Symonds and my other Symonds ancestors
Elizabeth Maria Symonds (1826-1911).My 3rd great-grandmother. Elizabeth Maria Symonds was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1826 and baptised in St Nicholas’s Church on 24 November that year. Her parents were fisherman Charles Robinson Witchingham Symonds and Susanna Waters (see below). Elizabeth married mariner William Mark Green, a Yarmouth native, at St Nicholas’s on 29 […]
Mary Pilgrim and my other Pilgrim ancestors
Mary Pilgrim (1811-1867).My 3rd great-grandmother. My Pilgrim ancestors came from Norfolk in East Anglia and joined my family tree when Mary Pilgrim married James Goulty in 1842. Mary was born illegitimately to mother Elizabeth Pilgrim on 7 January 1811 at Morley St Peter in Norfolk and was baptised there on 13 January. From a court […]
Jane Bashford and my other Bashford ancestors
Jane Bashford (1806-1885).My 3rd great-grandmother. The first Bashford to marry into my Finch family was Jane Bashford, who was born on 13 May 1806 in the village of Chipstead, Surrey. She was baptised at St Margaret’s Church on 15 June that year. Her parents were James Bashford and James Harman (see below). She married Henry […]
Mary Bilcliffe and my other Bilcliffe ancestors
Mary Bilcliffe (1735-1783).My 5th great-grandmother. The Bilcliffe surname is a rare one in the UK and appears in several forms in the records (like many other surnames of the time), for example as Billcliff, Billcliffe, Bentley and even Bentlet. The first to marry into my Surrey-based Finch family was Mary Bilcliffe – but who was […]
William Butchin’s newsworthy descendants
William Butchin was born in 1603 and baptised on 20 November that year at St Peter & St Paul’s Church in Nutfield, Surrey. I know little about by first cousin 11 times removed – the oldest son of another William Butching – but his wife and descendants were an interesting bunch… William’s father inherited the […]
William Budgen (1707-1782), successful yeoman
William Budgen (1707-1782). My 6th great-grand uncle. William Budgen was baptised in St Margaret’s Church in West Hoathly on 25 September 1707, the son of Thomas Budgen and Sarah Comber. He married Elizabeth Farmer in the village on 1 June 1736 and raised a family with her. Elizabeth is most likely the girl baptised at […]